(November 25, 2015 at 5:41 pm)Vic Wrote:

(November 25, 2015 at 5:27 pm)Yeauxleaux Wrote: But that's cissexist. If God is an agender pansexual non-binary espresso coffee machine complete with dual-action hydraulic processor, who identifies as "ze", you're being cis scum calling ze "he".

Lol. I don't know where you get these, but it gets me every time

Haha I just make them up, Start with a couple of ridiculous terms they actually use, then branch off into any inanimate object that comes to mind

(November 25, 2015 at 5:57 pm)Thena323 Wrote:  You seem to like polls an awful lot.

Good observation. ; )

(November 25, 2015 at 6:52 pm)Whateverist the White Wrote:

(November 25, 2015 at 5:55 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: Oh yes, I believe at some point He put something into motion. And from there just let things happen as they would, knowing what would come of it all. That's what I meant.

This would be compatible with God being a mindless creature of gargantuan proportions who shat galaxies.  Perhaps that is all the involvement He has or wants to have with his scat creations.

Well you don't have to believe in it yourself if you don't like it and if it makes no sense to you. No one is forcing anything on anyone here and we are all free to believe what we think is true. So long as we genuinely seek truth, that is what is most important. It all makes sense to me personally and I think I've been pretty clear on my thoughts and explained my position pretty well. 

Anyway, I've had lots of sex tonight and missed Survivor. If you ain't got time for Survivor, you ain't got time for anything. Good night, hoes. Happy t-giving. 

(November 25, 2015 at 6:46 pm)Wyrd of Gawd Wrote: Your comments are a weak argument.  There's been a lot of nasty diseases man has eliminated or learned how to control.  Remember polio and smallpox?  One day man may very well learn how to eliminate cancer.  He already knows how to control it although the control mechanism isn't perfect.  If you were properly motivated you could discover how to eliminate it or some other disease.  Instead you want some invisible magic being to make everything good for you.  

Actually, you missed my point, which is that a god who is perfectly good wouldn't have created those diseases in the first place. I'm not arguing against man's ability to learn; I'm arguing against the idea that the Abrahamic god is perfectly good.

Just so we're perfectly clear, I don't believe in any magical beings, much less desire said nonexistent entities to rescue me from a disease said being is alleged to have created.

(November 25, 2015 at 6:46 pm)Wyrd of Gawd Wrote: Look at the bright side.  The omnipotent god character didn't give you a disease that turns your bones into powder overnight.  So that's a good thing, right?

It ain't overnight, but I do indeed have a bone disease that is destroying my bone tissue. I don't believe that any god created it, because I don't believe in any gods.

I'll try to remember to include a "just for the sake of argument" clause, so that we can avoid this sort of misunderstanding again. But it's easier if you just remember that I'm an atheist, and that if I accept the premise of a god, it's only in order to hoist my interlocutor upon their own argument.

(November 25, 2015 at 6:46 pm)Wyrd of Gawd Wrote: For whatever reason or how it happened, man is supposed to be an intelligent creature who has the wherewithal to solve most of his problems if he will get off of his ass and work on them.  So when you have a problem do something that will solve it instead of just complain about it.  When you get hungry you are supposed to be smart enough to eat.  Don't complain because your body has the capability to experience hunger.    

For whatever reason, you seem to think I disagree with this. I'm unsure where you got that idea.

(November 25, 2015 at 12:38 pm)Kingpin Wrote:

(November 25, 2015 at 12:32 pm)Faith No More Wrote: Not true.  See my post at the top of the page.  I listed a couple of reasons for why I'm starting to lean towards gnosticism.

Besides, what is being agnostic but saying, "I don't know this to be true, but I believe(or lack belief in) it anyway?"  Is that really any more defensible than claiming to know god does not exist?

So if you are a Gnostic in regards to the existence of God, what is your stance on alien life?  There are thousands upon thousands of stories of encounters with God and encounters with aliens.  However, I find more believe in the plausibility of alien life then God.  It's interesting.

We have evidence that life exists in this universe and evidence of the vastness of the universe. Belief that something happened "out there" that we know happened here is more plausible than any supernatural claim for which there is no evidence.

Having said that, I'd be more surprised to find that life here was a one off occurrence in the universe than I would to find it happened elsewhere as well, but that doesn't mean I believe there are little green men running around Alpha Ceti Six.

Hey, CL, was the sex real real, or God real?

At the risk of lacking subtlety, I admit that my first thought when reading your poll was why is humanity so obsessed with this useless, incoherent idea?


Cathy, Do you believe anything on non-existing evidence? Do you like to ponder the truthiness of unprovable nonsense?

(November 24, 2015 at 12:07 pm)SteelCurtain Wrote: 6 on the Dawkins scale.

I consider the hypothesis so ridiculous and lacking evidence that I am essentially a 6.999999.

7 is logically indefensible.

I feel the same way about any god that I presume you feel about Thor or Mithra.

Tell me about something that wouldn't be logically indefensible as a 7 on that scale. That's why I would call myself a 7. There's a time and place for allowing uncertainty. In this context, I'm perfectly confortable with taking that further step to a 7.

(November 24, 2015 at 2:50 pm)Esquilax Wrote: I'mma go with apatheist, in practice at least: in my real life I don't give a shit whether god exists or not. If there's evidence I'll believe, but I'll formulate my religious beliefs about that deity based on its character, not its existence. What I do give a shit about are bad arguments and hideous overreach, and there's plenty of that in the religious ideologue and theocrat circles for me to step in on.

Catholic_Lady Wrote:Actually, the "problem of evil" has never for one second made me question God because I believe in free will.

It always weirds me out to see people using free will as an escape from the problem of evil, because it doesn't work for a reason so obvious that I have trouble believing that anyone hasn't seen it yet: it's morally good to curtail free will from those that are using it for evil ends. If I see a robbery in progress and I stop it, I've done a morally good act, so how is it that something that's morally good if a human does it becomes less so when god does it? Hell, the whole purpose of the police force is to curtail free will where necessary, and nobody would argue that a properly functioning police force is a bad thing. Inaction for free will's sake is not a justification.

Moreover, god can, by definition, intervene to stop evil without doing a thing to curtail free will anyway; free will consists of one being free to attempt to do something, it's not a guarantee of success. My free will hasn't been curtailed just because I'm unsuccessful at certain things. Therefore, god could arrange so that evil can be attempted, but not successful, without interfering in free will at all.

I can actually understand what they mean by that. Basically god doesn't intervene for now, and he'll reward us in the afterlife based on our behaviour. It's only fair, right? Except, of course, apparently he does intervene(you know, miracles and such).

But it's a moot point, anyway. There's no free will - it's as ridiculous a concept as God is.

If I consider the probability that there is some sort of being that does closely resemble one of the story book gods, I would rate it as significantly less likely than every member of ISIS all independently and simultaneously deciding to throw down their weapons and instead interpret Islam to be completely peaceful and loving.

I'm more concerned that my wife might suddenly attack and kill me for no reason than I am about Yahweh being real. And I have absolutely no reason to believe the former would ever happen.